The present invention relates to apparatus and a method for planning a room, and is concerned particularly, although not exclusively, with apparatus and a method for planning a kitchen.
The process of designing a kitchen includes making selections of several different types of components often from a great many options. Examples of the types of component include structural elements, such as walls, room fixtures, such as doors, floor-standing units, such as drawer units, wall-mounted units, such as cupboards, appliances, such as cookers and refrigerators, and also flooring and lighting.
There are several factors that limit the ways in which such components can be combined. Firstly there is the physical space into which the kitchen must fit. Then there are combinations of components that should not be permitted for aesthetic reasons, or else cannot be accommodated on technical grounds.
Historically, the planning stage involved manually selecting the style and type of component, and then manually determining compatibility, making calculations as necessary. A sketch was produced at the end of the process to visualise the finished design.
More recently the process has become computerised, with a remote central database of components being accessed by local terminals at which a designer specifies items for inclusion in the kitchen and then a remote processor builds a virtual model of the kitchen and sends it back to the local terminal. As well as being able to provide sufficient processing power at a remote server, the accessing of a central database also allows control of stock.
However, such operations are often conducted with the customer present in a store, and the unavoidable delay between sending data and receiving the virtual design is unwanted, particularly when the design had to be amended repeatedly.
The problem of delay becomes more pronounced when the image of the kitchen is to be rendered in 3-D, so that the customer can enjoy a realistic preview of the design.